Over the past 25 years, almost two thousand secondary schools have been closed in Belarus. The number of students has decreased by nearly half a million.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Science and Education, Pavel Tserashkovich, comments on the situation:
“The reduction in the number of schools is, of course, primarily driven by demographic factors – the number of children is declining, especially in rural areas. These processes are typical for many countries experiencing a demographic crisis. However, official propaganda presents this as an ‘optimization of the education system’: supposedly, there are fewer schools, but old and ‘inefficient’ ones are replaced by new, modern, and well-equipped institutions.
Under the guise of optimization, social programs are actually being dismantled. The reduction in schools closely resembles the reduction of the medical facility network. In both cases, physical access to these services becomes more difficult.
At the same time, the same propaganda claims that the cost of educating one student in rural areas (7,058.31 BYN per year) is more than twice as high as in cities (3,109.52 BYN per year). But when converted, these amounts are only about $2,000 and $900, respectively. Is that a lot? In Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, average spending per student ranges from $7,500 to $8,500. By these indicators, Belarus even lags behind Colombia, Turkey, and Mexico, which occupy the lowest ranks in the OECD tables.
So, can truly ‘modern and well-equipped’ schools be created with these average $1–2 thousand per year? Can teachers be provided with a decent standard of living? The questions are largely rhetorical. But they clearly reveal the real reasons behind the so-called ‘optimization’”.
